<p>The purpose of the study was to develop and implement a new reading intervention with fifth grade struggling readers that included reading across multiple texts, constructing arguments from the texts, engaging in oral argumentation, and writing argumentative essays. A Convergent Mixed Methods design incorporated both quantitative and qualitative data to determine if teacher collaboration influenced the implementation of the new intervention and its subsequent effect on students’ reading and writing outcomes. The intervention focused on a 10-week argumentative unit based on the American Revolution War. Group 1 teacher implemented the intervention in a whole-class setting, plus collaborated with the researcher on implementation issues; Group 2 teacher implemented the intervention in a small pullout group, but did not collaborate with the researcher; and Control Group teacher did not implement the intervention. All student groups took a pre and post reading comprehension assessment, and Groups 1 and 2 students took a pre and post essay writing assessment. The reading comprehension scores showed no significant improvement for any group. The pre and post essay writing scores for Groups 1 and 2 showed significant improvement (<i>p</i> = .000), yet there was no significant difference between the two intervention groups (<i>p</i> =.66). The qualitative results indicate student achievement in the intervention groups may have been affected by five implementation factors: (1) implementation fidelity, (2) short duration, (3) size of group, (4) task complexity, and (5) aligned assessments. </p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:3645515 |
| Date | 23 December 2014 |
| Creators | Grogan, Martha Susan |
| Publisher | University of Arkansas at Little Rock |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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